


Watch Over Me

by couldvelovedyou



Category: Football RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-23 06:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couldvelovedyou/pseuds/couldvelovedyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cristiano receives death threats and has to have security at all times. It affects every aspect of his life and he's having a hard time with it. Cue Iker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Cristiano shows up late to practice. He walks out with a man in a suit who looks around, nods at him once and goes back inside.

Cristiano steps on the grass and joins them. Marcelo pats him on the back and Pepe gives him a quick hug as the team lines up for drills. Cristiano starts running laps to warm up and Iker watches him biting his lower lip, fiddle with his shirt, almost trip at one point over his own legs.

Sergio brings his head close to Iker's. "Who was that guy in the suit?" he asks.

"No idea," Iker whispers back. "Seems all serious. You think that's his agent?"

"No, that's not him. But maybe it's someone who works for him?"

They examine Cristiano who's joined back up with the team for ball exercises. Isco passes to him and Cristiano runs towards the goal and shoots high above Diego's head. He runs back to the end of the line, frowning. 

"How did the meeting with Florentino go?" Marcelo asks him.

"It sucked."

Marcelo gives an understanding 'hmm'.

"I thought he didn't want to leave," Sergio says to Iker, and yeah, that's the first thing that comes to his mind too.

"We don't know that he does, let's not worry about it yet," Iker decides for them both. "Let's just practice." He leaves him there to replace Diego in goal. Cristiano shoots at him, misses again.

-

When they head to the showers after practice, the man in the suit stands outside their dressing room and it seems like he's waiting. Sergio and Iker exchange glances.

"We should just ask him," Sergio says. 

"I don't know."

"We're captains, it's reasonable. Come on."

They sit down and wait together for Cristiano. When he emerges from the showers with a towel wrapped around his waist, they corner him next to his locker.

Cristiano takes a shirt out and looks at them. They stare at him silently, and he sighs. "What?" he asks.

"We don't want to pressure you or anything-" Iker starts, but Sergio cuts in. "Who's the suit outside? Are you leaving?"

Cristiano blinks at them, looking from one to the other. His mouth shapes into an 'O'. "It's not what you think," he ends up saying, but that doesn't satisfy them at all. Cristiano closes his locker and sits down, doesn't look at them and settles on biting his nails. Iker gets a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Well?" Sergio urges him.

"I have a stalker," Cristiano says. "The suit is a bodyguard."

"A stalker," Iker repeats, and Cristiano nods. "What does that mean?"

"He's sending letters. Well, threats. Death threats."

Iker and Sergio stare at him with wide eyes. 

"I've been getting them for years, but I guess these threats are different so I have to have a bodyguard with me now all the time. I didn't want to but my agent talked to the police and Florentino is making me."

Did he say he's been getting threats for years? Iker thinks. That's horrible. "So that means this guy is serious," he says instead. Cristiano just shrugs at him. "The security is a good thing, Cris."

"I guess. It's just this whole situation… I hate it. I hope the police gets him fast."

"I'm sure they will."

"Damn," Sergio summarizes.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the great security during the US tour :D

Cristiano has three different bodyguards that they see at practice. Iker looks at them uncomfortably, because they just remind him of the death threats and he's pretty worried about that, but the rest of the team gets used to them quickly.

Pepe and Marcelo take one of them, Javier, under their wing. They tease him relentlessly until he gives in and starts giving it back to them, at which point they holler in the dressing room and announce that it's party time, putting on the noisiest Brazilian music they own and throw wet towels at everyone. After, it seems like Javier becomes the third member of their pranks.

Another one, Pablo, has worked in Germany before, and Mesut takes to him immediately, talking to him in his native language at every opportunity. "He's talking about Germany," Sami tells them. "His homesickness isn't pretty."

And the third guard, Manuel –and Iker doesn't know how Sergio finds that out- turns out to be a Barcelona fan. For a whole day Sergio acts too offended to be around him, but after that, the two of them get into heated conversations about football at every chance. Iker hears words like possession, counter-attack and manita coming from where they stand waving their arms around, and steers clear of that.

The first match of the season looms by, and the team works hard, two practices a day. When it finally gets there, their dressing room at the Bernabéu buzzes with excitement and they strain to listen to the sounds of the crowd. 

Sergio glares at Manuel, warns him not to jinx them, before coming around Iker in a circle with the rest of the team. Iker just smiles at everyone, tells them, "You know this is our season," and they all walk out to the pitch, ready to start.

Betis plays hard, defends well, but Cristiano manages a goal in the 81st minute. They push him down to the grass for a celebration, piling on top of him, and he emerges laughing. 

He stops laughing when a fan pushes through the ring of security and runs to the pitch. He makes his way straight to Cristiano, who, Iker sees from all the way back in his goal, gets a terrified look on his face and looks around for help. The fan grabs onto Cristiano's shirt, and Cristiano stumbles back, tries to get free. He touches the fan's hand, tries to pry him off, but the fan latches on, switches to holding Cristiano's face between his hands and starts talking to him.

Sergio and Pepe grab the fan then, take one arm each, and pull him away. Cristiano falls back from the force. Manuel runs onto the pitch with 3 security men. While they take over the fan and lead him out, Manuel leans down to check on Cristiano.  
He talks to him softly and pulls him up to his legs, and together they walk off the pitch and into the tunnel.

-

The dressing room is quiet after the match is over. They all walk in while Cristiano is still in the shower, but Manuel stands inside now, watching both the door and the showers.

Iker glances to the showers and back. "Is he okay?" he asks Manuel, and Manuel shakes his head. 

The team spreads out to their lockers, everyone talking quietly until Cristiano comes out and they turns to look at him. "I'm fine," he says, and nobody believes him. His red eyes and stiff shoulders contradict that. "Come on," he tells Manuel, and they both leave.

-

Everyone clears out after a while, after showering and getting dressed and making plans to meet up at a club to celebrate the win, but Iker stays back. He notices Cristiano left wearing his shower flip flops, and realizes he's coming back to get his things. Iker figures they went to talk to the stadium's security.

Cristiano walks in after about 30 minutes, dragging his feet and looking down. He walks straight to his locker to get his things, and only notices Iker sitting there when he turns to leave.

Iker hears his deep sigh, looks at him until Cristiano drops down to sit next to Iker on the bench. "I can't believe this," he mumbles. 

Iker touches his back. "What happened?"

"I can't play until they get the guy. The stalker guy. They think he might try to get me here too."

Iker needs to be supportive, he knows. He holds back the shock and unfairness of it all, and rubs Cristiano's back. "They just want to keep you safe. The pitch invader today was scary."

Cristiano is quiet for a while, thinks things over. He then looks up at Iker. "I didn't even realize I was scared until today. I saw some of the letters last week, the threats. When he grabbed my face today… I knew he was just a fan and wasn't trying to hurt me but he wouldn't let go and I couldn't breathe and I just thought of the letters. Shit, I didn't even say thanks to Sergio and Pepe."

"They know," Iker says. "It's fine. You need to take care of yourself now."

"What am I going to do if I can't play?" Cristiano's voice is desperate.

"How long is it going to be? Two, three matches? They'll get him, Cris."

Cristiano just shakes his head.

"You can still come to practice, right?"

"I don't know, I didn't ask."

"Good, let's say it's a yes then." That gets a chuckle. "Tomorrow's off, but Tuesday you'll come practice with us and it'll be just the same."

"Yeah, I just won't get to play for real."

"Hey," Iker says and touches Cristiano's face. "It'll be fine. I promise. It's gonna be over in no time."

Cristiano looks at him like, you can't know that, and, you can't promise that, but he pulls his shoulders up and nods. "Okay. Fine."

"Go get some sleep," Iker pats his back twice and pulls him up, hands him his backpack. He walks him to his car, watches him get in and drive off, his lips in a deep pout. But Tuesday when he gets to Valdebebas, Cristiano is already there, running down their training pitch with a ball at his feet, dribbling past pretend defenders and shooting balls into an empty net. He gives Iker a tight smile, and Iker knows he's not 100% okay, but it's good enough for now.


	3. 3

Cristiano travels with them to Granada, saying he wants to support the team. He walks up with them to inspect the pitch before the crowd is let in, and before he steps on the grass he leans down and just hovers over it with the palm of his hand. Pepe, who's not starting, brings out a ball and starts passing it around with him. The substitutes join them to play 3 on 3, and Iker smiles as he gets in goal.

Cristiano shoots at him, and Iker saves, holds the ball in his hands before releasing it to Fábio. "That all you got?" he calls out, and a second later, Cristiano steals the ball and shoots at him again, this time with the added swoosh of the ball hitting the net.

Cristiano waves his finger at him. "Careful, your grandpa is showing!" and smiles wide at him as they go down to the dressing rooms.

-

Their first practice after Granada, national call ups arrive, and Carlo goes around and shakes their hands, congratulates them. 16 players, Iker does a mental headcount, and he's so proud, but it should be 17 and the fittest of them all stays out because he's not allowed to play.

Cristiano is putting on his cleats and his hands are shaking. Iker grabs his arm and pulls him out of the room, to the hallway, to the open space. Cristiano shakes him off. "Don't touch me."

He walks away and Iker lets him, lets him get on the pitch and kick every ball he sees and every cone that was laid out for their practice and every bottle of water. He runs to the other end of the pitch with the ball in his hands and throws it at the crossbar, over and over. Iker thinks he hears him yell at it.

He walks over to him slowly, letting him cool down. When he gets to the goal Cristiano is leaning on the post, eyes closed. It looks like he's breathing in the smell of it.

"Cris," is all he says.

Cristiano spits out. "This was supposed to be over already! How long does it take to catch a crazy person who's completely ruining my life?" he shouts. "God this is so stupid!!"

"Have you heard anything from the police?"

"They still can't find him but they keep saying they're working on it."

Iker nods and wraps his arm around Cristiano's shoulder, leading him back. "They'll get him soon. This won't last forever. You know it won't."

"Yeah," he says, and looks at Iker's face, his eyes. "Thank you."

-

The next day he doesn't show up to practice. Fábio drives in on his own, drops his bag at his locker. "It's getting worse. The letters talk about his car and hurting him here and I don't even know what else. He's not coming."

"This is ridiculous," Sergio slams the door to his locker. "How did the police not get this guy yet?"

"It's just scary," Pepe says. "To think that someone wants to hurt him this bad, and it's not even the first time."

"You realize if he's talking about hurting him here that would mean we should be careful too," Sami points out, and it's like a light bulb goes off for everyone.

"That's probably why he's not here," Iker says, gets up and puts on his gloves. "He's protecting us."

Murmurs of 'yeah' fill the room.

For the Athletic game, Cristiano sits and watches in his box. He says it's fine, that the food is nice and they have good coffee and he can spend time with his son, but Sergio raises his eyebrows at Iker and Iker knows. 

-

Once everyone gets back from national team duty, they all meet at Cristiano's house. Sergio brings beer and pizzas. His excuse, "We don't have another match for a week," is actually reasonable, so they all shrug and dig in.

Cristiano's surprise at them at his door shines for a quick second before he hides it. Iker is the last one to come inside, and as Cristiano closes the door, Iker whispers to him, "Everyone loves you, you know that, right?" which gets him a shaky smile.

They settle in for a FIFA tournament, playing only clubs. After a while, Cristiano dares everyone to play Barcelona against his Real Madrid and Mesut takes the challenge. 

"Ooohhh Mesut," Sami yells from the back of the room. "Your culé is showing!"

Mesut throws an empty plastic cup at his direction and takes a controller. They get into it quickly, Mesut scoring first and Cristiano equalizes, Mesut scoring again and then Cristiano scores twice with himself on the screen, and it's over.

"Yeah!" he gets up and raises his arms in victory. "Hala Madrid!"

"Is he drunk?" Marcelo laughs, and Sergio messes Mesut's hair. "I think game you gave him the assist for his last goal!"

They split up in groups who talk and drink, and Cristiano stays on his couch, leans over to Iker who's in the couch next to him. "I'm going to be back for the Clásico and we're going to win."

They cheer for that. 

The doorbell goes off all of a sudden and everyone looks around, doing a mental headcount and trying to see if anyone's missing that could be at the door. Cristiano walks over and opens it, but there's no one there. He looks down and there's a box sitting on his porch.

He picks it up and walks back to the living room, puts it on the table.

"Who's it from?" everyone gathers around and Cristiano shrugs and moves to open it. When he does, he reaches in and pulls something out, and his hands shake. It's a big brown teddy bear, and it's in two pieces. In Cristiano's left hand is its body, and in the right, the head, with a red X drawn over it. 

Iker places his hand on top of one of Cristiano's to stop the shaking. "Cris, what is it?"

"My son… he has a teddy bear just like this one."


	4. 4

It takes 10 minutes for the decision to be made, and Cristiano goes upstairs to pack a bag for his son. He calls his mom on his way upstairs, asking her to come over.

Everyone left downstairs looks at each other and at the teddy bear that Cristiano left on the living room table. They're horrified.

"How did that get in? It's a gated community," Kaká says as he picks up the teddy and examines it.

"I thought there was a bodyguard here," Xabi says.

"This is so creepy. I need a drink," Sergio announces and walks to the liquor cabinet to search around for whiskey. "Where does he keep glasses… never mind," and he drinks straight from the bottle before passing it over to the rest of them, but Iker doesn't take it. 

There is a bodyguard, but he's standing outside the gate. Iker walks out to him, quickly tells him what just happened. "You need to have another guard here to stand closer to the door."

When Iker walks back in the house, they all hear Cris Jr. crying and screaming upstairs. "I should go help him," Fábio gets up, and he's the one who spends the most time with Cristiano and his son so that makes sense. The crying doesn't stop when he goes up, but it slows down after a while.

Cristiano's mother gets there quickly. "I'll go get him," Iker tells her, and the guys start heading out, hugging Cristiano's mother and telling her it will get resolved soon.

Iker leaves them there and walks upstairs to search for Cristiano. He finds him in Cris' bedroom, tossing clothes into a suitcase while Fábio holds Cris in his arms and tries to calm him down.

"Your mom is here," Iker tells Cristiano.

Fábio heads to the door with Cris. "I'll take him to her," he says and Cristiano nods at him and turns back to the closet, puts down a few more pieces of clothing in the suitcase and closes it. 

"You need help with it?" Iker asks, but Cristiano shakes his head and sits down on the bed. "I just need a minute," he says. They stay quiet for a while, and Cristiano speaks. "I didn't realize he'd get so upset."

"Isn't he used to staying in Portugal with your family?"

"Not now. Usually it's during the summer for our pre-season. He knows something is wrong."

"Cris, I know it's hard…"

"You don't really know," Cristiano says, and it's not spiteful, just an observation.

"Right, but I can imagine. It's for the best, you know it is. Tomorrow night he won't even remember being upset and you'll be much calmer knowing he's completely safe."

"You're right. He'll probably get there and the moment he sees his cousins he won't remember me, but this is so hard. It's ruining everything, I thought football was the worst but now it's my family? I don't know what to do, Iker."

"You have to keep being strong, Cris, there's no other option."

When Cristiano looks up at him, there are tears in his eyes. "I don't know how to."

"Cris," Iker breathes out, and he feels so bad for him and such a strong need to make him feel better. He walks over to the bed and hugs him. Cristiano buries his head in his shoulder and Iker holds the back of his neck.

He promises to come by the next day after practice and squeezes Cristiano's hand on his way out, leaving him to say goodbye to his son. And he says a small prayer before getting into bed that night, hoping for everything to be better soon.

-

Practice is hard, long. They practice set pieces. Iker and Diego alternate in goal, and when Iker gets in the shower he breathes a sigh of frustration under the water. He's definitely not used to this kind of competition. 

It all slips his mind once he gets to Cristiano's and finds him in the backyard, shooting balls into an empty net.

"Come on," he takes the ball out of the net and puts it down where he figures it's 11 meters away. "I need some practice."

Cristiano looks at him like he doesn't believe it, but steps to stand behind the ball. 

They practice penalty kicks for a while. Iker tells him to do different styles of kicks, and Cristiano exhausts all left, right, upwards and center kicks. 

"Do one where you stop running when you get to the ball and then you shoot," Iker instructs. 

"That's cheating."

"So you know why I want to practice it with you," Iker says and Cristiano sticks his tongue out at him.

"If we play you in the World Cup, we're screwed," Cristiano says after, and moves farther away to practice free kicks.

Iker just laughs at him. "Scared?" The ball curls right past him into the net in return.

Cristiano moves around on the grass, placing the ball in different places and different distances from goal, kicking with his left foot then with his right. Iker lets in about 50 goals before Cristiano tires himself out and lies down on the grass. Iker sits down next to him.

"Hey, thanks," Cristiano says. "I needed this practice."

"Me too," Iker admits, and he feels the stress rushing back in. It must note on his face because Cristiano takes his hand. "Hey," he tells him. "You know you're still the best, right? Don't ever doubt it. You're it for all of us."

Iker feels a sting in his eye, and a skip in his chest. It might be arrogant on his part, but that's exactly what he needed to hear. 

He looks down at Cristiano, who's smiling that small smile of his, and Iker can't help the way his heart beats fast. He leans down and brushes Cristiano's lips with his own, and Cristiano doesn't pull back.


End file.
